Yes, o evil one, the paint and finish are indeed washed away by time, but the imapct, the color saturations, the reds, the cyans are all intensified. It appears to be a contradiction, but in reality, is this not what history is all about? The events of the day go by, almost without notice. But it time, the errors of mankind become magnified and intensified. Unfortunately, to most folks (in the US we call them "boobis americanus") the lessons of history only appeared washed away, very much like your instructive photo. But to the students of history, we can see within the washed out records of time, the intense lessons, which, if understood correctly, can raise our level of awareness so that we are not herded into pitfalls of right wing nut ideologies (now there's a mouthful). Oy. Michael.

Unfortunately, this time around my intuition and sense of perfection failed me and I didn't plant any extra digits on the photo, sorry to admit... Yet, if I were to plant, you might've guessed that it would've been rather 1666 like herehttp://www.pbase.com/eldarrio/image/101394372/original or 1321 , at the very least, LOL

Great work of art you have spotted here too...love the contrasting colours and the crackly textures
To be honest, I wondered if you had, artistically of course, added the numbers. Then I noticed the slight upward curling at the bottom?.........